Philadelphia Flyers Lose Game, Wayne Simmonds vs. Washington Captials

It was yet another disappointing night for Flyers fans, as their team dropped their third straight game, this time to the Washington Capitals. The final score was 3-2, indicating that the Flyers offense continues to struggle, leaving goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov out to dry. This was a game that the Flyers should have won. A tired, one-win Capitals team with no rest, against a Flyers club that hasn’t played since Tuesday night. However, that was simply not the case.

The Flyers got beat to pucks all night long, made turnovers that proved to be incredibly costly, and seemed to have no heart out on the ice. Philadelphia now has a league-high six losses on the young season, but an even more significant loss could potentially be on the horizon.

In the first period, winger Wayne Simmonds received what appeared to be an intentional elbow to the face from John Erskine, knocking him to the ice. The hit to face didn’t appear to be the problem, as after taking the shot, Simmonds crashed to the ice hard, smacking his head. On the very next faceoff, tough guy Zac Rinaldo stood up for his teammate and dropped the gloves with fighter Matt Hendricks. It wasn’t a fight, as Rinaldo hit Hendricks with repeated blows to the head. Both players received game misconducts for fighting before the faceoff. It was just one of the many questionable calls from these referees tonight.

As for Erskine, you better believe he will be receiving a call from the NHL very soon, resulting in a suspension at the least.

Flyers fans everywhere held their breath as Simmonds struggled to make his way to the bench. Thoughts of concussion likely ran through their minds all night. According to initial tests, Simmonds does not have a concussion. Instead, general manager Paul Holmgren stated that he has a head injury and whiplash.

Simmonds has arguably been the best player for the orange and black this year. After already losing Scott Hartnell and Andrej Meszaros to injury, they simply cannot afford to lose Simmonds as well.

Philadelphia has a huge four-game homestand starting on Saturday, hopefully with Simmonds in the lineup.